Please help us continue to provide you with free, quality journalism by turning off your ad blocker on our site.

Thank you for signing in.

If this is your first time registering, please check your inbox for more information about the benefits of your Forbes account and what you can do next!

I agree to receive occasional updates and announcements about Forbes products and services. You may opt out at any time.

I'd like to receive the Forbes Daily Dozen newsletter to get the top 12 headlines every morning.

Forbes takes privacy seriously and is committed to transparency. We will never share your email address with third parties without your permission. By signing in, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Statement.

There was a time - and it wasn’t that long ago - when I found my way around the UK capital by using a book called London A to Z. When I wanted to find a particular street, I would look it up in the index, ascertain the grid reference and then flick through to the relevant page of the guide, where a map would be waiting for me.

Today, of course, I’m much more likely to check out the street on Google Street View before I leave the house and then, once I’ve set off, use one of the map apps on my smartphone to guide me from the nearest Underground station to the door of my destination.

And the truth is, we now take digital mapping for granted. Whether using an in-car Sat Nav, a smartphone or a tablet, we assume - mostly correctly - that as long as there’s a 4G signal or a WiFi hotspot to hand or a GPS satellite overhead, we’re never going to get lost. The world has been well and truly mapped out and digitized and we’re all the better for it.

But according to Jan Erik Solem, co-founder of Swedish startup Mapillary, the world has not quite got to the point were mapping companies and those who use their products have all the data they need to render up-to-the minute representations the world that are fit for purpose in the era of smart cities and self driving cars.

A Mathematician by training, Solem had the idea for the company after working on a mapping project at Apple. “What I realized was that even Apple - one of the world’s biggest corporations - couldn’t get all the data it needed. Map companies hold a lot of data but they hold it very close. You can buy the map but not the data.”

So Solem and his co-founders set out to create a business that make massive amounts of data available, with a focus on street level imagery.

Which begs a question. Most of us are familiar with Google’s Street View. So how can a startup compete?

User Generated Content

The answer lies in something that you might characterize as user generated content. Rather than sending fleets of camera equipped vehicles out on the road, Mapillary invites companies, organisations and individuals to contribute their own imagery, which is stored and processed in a central database. That imagery might come from Smartphones, from cameras deployed by city authorities, or dashboard cameras. “By doing it this way, we have the capacity to reach everywhere on the planet,” says Solem. As things stand, Mapillary has 290 million images on its database and 22bn map points.

So why is this necessary? Well, as Solem sees it, one advantage of the Mapillary approach is that data can be updated quickly. Thus if a road is blocked by a falling tree or a flood, this can be factored into a map of the area. And once driverless cars become the norm rather than a novelty, accurate and timely mapping will be essential. “In future the map data will be vital to navigating the car, says Solem. “But at the moment maps are not responsive to dangerous situations.”

With the global market for such vehicles set to grow to a value of $127bn by 2027 according to analysts Research and Markets, Mapillary is expecting to tap into a huge market. To some extent the car industry is buying into the company’s vision. Volkswagen is a client and BMW i Ventures is among the investors.

Finding Clients Now

But that’s the future. No one can be absolutely certain about the timeline for the introduction of driverless vehicles, so in the meantime, Mapillary has sought out other markets. In addition to Volkswagen, the company’s client list includes city authorities and the Government of Lithuania

“City governments are an important market,” says Solem. “For instance, city authorities could use the tools we provide to improve disability access.”

Last year, Mapillary generated about $1m in revenue and this is expected to rise. “Cities are an important market," Solem adds. "For us, working in the automotive sector is something for the future. But at the moment, cities represent a mature market."

Big Auto

But will the world’s big automotive companies support a system that involves images being uploaded to a central database from a range of very diverse sources and a concept based on collaboration through the sharing of pictures? Solem thinks they will.

“It is one of our challenges - pushing a collaborative model. But we think it will work. If everyone collaborates we will all be better off.” And as he points out, the sharing of data - for instance, hazard data - is not unknown within the industry.

Mapillary sees a big future in the automotive sector , but like many forward looking tech companies it must also survive in the here and now - generating revenue in a market that already seems crowded. To that end, it has carved out a niche, allowing organisations to create and edit their own maps, while also adding their own visual content when they need it.

I am a UK-based journalist and author with more than a decade's experience of writing about startups, tech companies and fast growth businesses. My career in journalism

…

I am a UK-based journalist and author with more than a decade's experience of writing about startups, tech companies and fast growth businesses. My career in journalism began as Business Editor of BBC World television's pan-European text news services. From there I went on to edit e.Business and PLC Director magazines before going freelance. I am the author of three books, including The Unauthorized Guide to Business the Jamie Oliver Way, which has been translated into five languages. Follow me on Twitter @trevorclawson